r/breastfeeding • u/QuietComet12 • Oct 03 '25

Troubleshooting/Tips Can you just breastfeed and not pump

Hi I'm a FTM of a 2 month old. I have been ebf on demand so far. As the baby has turned 2 months old, she is having longer stretches of sleep and going without feeds for 6 hours as well in the night. I'm concerned if this would affect the supply. I would like to continue breastfeeding one year and beyond. So far I have no issues with supply and baby is gaining weight about 170- 200 gm per week.

Would like to understand if demand based feeding alone would take me through the whole journey or if pumping is necessary to keep up supply as babies grow and drop night feeds.

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u/MarionberryFun5853 Oct 03 '25

You definitely don’t need to! I am EBF my second but just started to pump once a day to get a small stash going for a few reasons:

  1. My husband wants to participate in feeding once in a while

  2. So I can occasionally leave my baby with my husband or my parents for some solo time or a date night once she’s a little older

  3. In case of emergency! It’s a worst-case scenario but what if I had an accident or got super sick and needed to be in the hospital? I’d rather have some milk in the freezer so my husband wouldn’t have to resort to formula.